Beyond Homeless plans for future through freezing temperatures

Wednesday, January 7, 2015
As snow accumulates at Beyond Homeless, the organization looks to expand its services in the new year. (Photo by TYLER MURPHY)

As the winter temperatures continue to plummet, the number of residents currently situated in the Beyond Homeless Inc. homeless shelter has reached an all-time high according to the shelter's director, Tanis Monday.

"We currently have 17 residents staying with us," said Monday, "which is our highest capacity to date."

The shelter, which opened in April 2014, provides emergency housing for homeless single women and women with children. Since then it has provided shelter to more than 40 women and 20 children. Monday was named the director last January.

"In those days we were concerned with actually getting a shelter up and running," she said. "Now it has been nine months and, like any healthy non-profit, we are looking toward the future and looking at strategic new ways to provide our best services."

With temperatures reaching below zero, concerns arose with the homeless in the area, but Monday doesn't seem to be too worried.

"We haven't seen an influx in residents in the last two or three freezing days," she said. "Rural homelessness looks very different than urban homelessness. We don't have as many people living on the streets on grates or under stairwells. Ours tend to be more like couch surfers: staying on friends' couches for a week or two here or there."

According to her, however, there are people in the county living on the streets, but Beyond Homeless Inc. has ways they can help.

"We can provide hotel vouchers for men or women living on the street," Monday said. "With weather like this those can be extremely helpful, but this is only a short-term solution."

For those already staying in the shelter, Monday believes it has all the necessities to stay warm in these harsh times. The building itself is fully equipped for this kind of weather and thanks to the people of Putnam County, so are its residents.

"We have been extremely blessed over the holidays that the community has taken the time to think about the shelter," Monday said. "Everyone has plenty of hats, gloves and coats thanks to their generosity."

The shelter has had to decline residency to people in the past, however, because the space wasn't available. Monday has been looking into grants and other ways of expanding Beyond Homeless' services, but says it really will take the whole community.

"We can't be the only organization trying to help and expect to completely fix the problem," said Monday. "We would love to expand into these peoples' needs but we need programs that we know will be financially sustainable and things like that take time."

For now, Monday hopes to gain some funding by participating in the Point in Time Count taking place Wednesday Jan. 28. The event attempts to get a snapshot of homelessness in a certain community at a given time.

"Our hope is that anyone experiencing homelessness in our area will participate," said Monday. "This is a great way to promote funding from the state."

While there aren't any other shelters in Greencastle, Monday says there are other options in Terre Haute, Bloomington and Indianapolis.

People are encouraged to check the group's Facebook page for items the shelter may need and donations may be sent to P.O. Box 733 in Greencastle.

Comments
View 2 comments
Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. Please note that those who post comments on this website may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.
  • So what are the homeless males supposed to do? Isn't this discrimination? Just asking........

    -- Posted by Falcon9 on Thu, Jan 8, 2015, at 10:08 AM
  • According to the article, they provide motel vouchers to men.

    -- Posted by Geologist on Thu, Jan 8, 2015, at 12:27 PM
Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: